W3C builds Web architecture group

Summary:The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Web's most influential standards body, has launched a Technical Architecture Group. The new group is charged with formulating principles behind the Web's architecture and clarifying them when conflicts arise.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Web's most influential standards body, has launched a Technical Architecture Group. The new group is charged with formulating principles behind the Web's architecture and clarifying them when conflicts arise. W3C members will elect five of the group's members; W3C founder and director Tim Berners-Lee elected the remaining three.

"Some discussions and debates within W3C have highlighted the need for documented architectural principles," the W3C said in a release. Berners-Lee added: "The Web is a minimalist design; there are as few arbitrary constraints as possible. However, as Web technologies must be interoperable and consistent, it is very important to stick to those constraints." Founding members of the group elected by W3C members are representatives of Microsoft, eBuilt, the Apache Software Foundation, BEA Systems, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. Berners-Lee's appointees are Tim Bray, of Antarcti.ca, and Dan Connolly and Chris Lilley, both of the W3C. --Paul Festa, Special to ZDNet News